GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org
For Immediate Release:
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, cell 202-904-7614,
mclarty@greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@gp.org
Green Party to Democratic apologists: The message of the Wall Street
protests is not 'Vote Democrat'
• Video and Livestreaming:
Green Party Occupy America http://www.gp.org/campaigns/occupy-america/index.php
Cheri Honkala, Green candidate for Sheriff of Philadelphia, visits
Occupy Wall Street http://vimeo.com/29997382
Cheri Honkala speaks at Occupy DC http://www.vimeo.com/30200014
Interview with New York Green Mark Dunlea at Occupy Wall Street
http://www.gp.org/video/display.php?ID=59
Interview with Michael O'Neil, Secretary of the Green Party of New
York State, Occupy Wall Street
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orcQYUyfUyY
WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party leaders sharply criticized Democratic
Party supporters online and in the media who have tried to turn the
ongoing Occupy Wall Street, Occupy America, and October 2011
demonstrations across America into an appeal to vote Democrat and
reelect President Obama in 2012.
Many of the protesters have expressed their disgust with two-party
politics (http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/wall-street-protesters-disgusted-parties-14687840)
and the influence of corporate money. Organizers have rejected
attempts to shoehorn the movement into any party and assert that the
protesters come from diverse political persuasions.
Greens, who are participating in the protests and among the
organizers, have pointed to the Green Party's alternative vision for
America, as expressed in the Green New Deal
(http://www.greenpartywatch.org/2010/08/11/62-green-candidates-endorse-green-new-deal)
and on the party's web site (http://www.gp.org).
The Green Party offers a platform for peace, economic security for
working people, millions of new green jobs in conservation and clean
energy development, an end to fossil fuel addiction, real steps for
curbing global climate change and restoring the health of the planet,
universal health care (Medicare For All), and reforms that would limit
the power of corporations and restore the promise of participatory
democracy and fair elections. Green candidates do not accept
corporate money.
• Mark Dunlea, co-founder of the Green Party of New York State: "The
Democratic Party does not speak for the Occupy Wall Street, Occupy
America, and October 2011 protesters. No political party speaks for
the protesters, not even the Green Party. The protesters speak for
themselves. The Green Party has endorsed and joined the demos because
we share the same frustration and anger as the other protesters.
Greens are there because we bring alternative ideas like the Green New
Deal. And we're there because we encourage the 99 percent -- We The
People -- to organize, end pro-corporate two-party rule, and replace
the politicians in public office who enabled Wall Street's theft of
America's future. This can only happen through an independent
alliance with the same diversity we're seeing at the protests: labor
activists, Greens, progressives, anarchists, libertarians, nonvoters,
disappointed Democrats and Republicans, and all others who want real
change."
• Sanda Everette, co-coordinator of the Coordinating Committee of the
Green Party of California: "If pro-Democrat web sites and the media
believe that the message of the protests is 'Vote Democrat' and
'Reelect Obama' in 2012, they've missed the point. The current
demonstrations became necessary after Election Day 2008, when too many
liberal, progressive, and antiwar Democrats declared 'Mission
Accomplished' with Barack Obama's election victory. The Democratic
Party has proved itself as dedicated to Wall Street as the GOP. We
look forward to more protests and direct action as the election season
unfolds, especially during the 2012 Democratic and Republican
conventions."
• Farheen Hakeem, Green candidate for the Minnesota State Senate in
District 61 (http://www.farheenhakeem.org) and co-chair of the Green
Party of the United States: "Say no to the parties of war and
corporate money! That's our message to all Americans who are worried
about the dangerous direction that the two Titanic Parties have
steered our country. If the field of presidential candidates is
limited to incumbent Obama and the Republican nominee after the
primaries, then everything the Wall Street protesters are talking
about will be erased from the election season debate and from the
media. Hopes for a progressive challenge in the Democratic primaries
are unrealistic. The challenger will inevitably be defeated by the
Obama campaign juggernaut, which is already loaded with corporate
campaign checks, and the challenger's supporters will find themselves
muzzled, with the expectation that they'll vote Democrat."
• Terry Baum, Green candidate for Mayor of San Francisco
(http://terryjoanbaum.com): "Barack Obama received more Wall Street
money than any other candidate in US history. Instead of change, the
Obama Administration gave us Phase 2 of the Bush-Cheney agenda: more
Wall Street bailouts, more endless war, more offshore oil drilling and
the dangerous Keystone XL pipeline, more mountaintop detonation
mining. Instead of financial security for Americans, we got plans to
slash Social Security and Medicare. We got minimal assistance for
people facing home foreclosures and more crushing debt for college
students. We got silence about the racist death penalty and
record-high mass incarceration of young black, brown, and poor people
in a greedy private prison system. We got a health care bill with
mandates that are a direct public subsidy for the insurance industry
(originally a Republican proposal), but no universal health care or
controls for skyrocketing medical costs. We got impunity for Bush
officials who authorized torture and other war crimes -- and more
extraordinary rendition, more warrantless surveillance of US citizens,
more erosion of due process, more persecution of whistleblowers, and
even a secret presidential hit list of Americans targeted for
assassination."
• Cheri Honkala, Green candidate for Sheriff of Philadelphia
(http://www.cherihonkala.com) running on an anti-foreclosure platform,
speaking at Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC on October 6: "What I'm
doing is not symbolic. It's concrete and Bill and Aida and Glenn
who's here with me today, like millions of people across this country
are gonna lose their homes... unless you take this seriously and not
just march about it, pray about it, and sing about it but help me fill
every damn poll in Philadelphia where there's a birthplace of
revolution and change... We can do this again in this country and
take our country back!"
See also:
• "Green Party of the US endorses, joins 'October 2011' protest
against the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and 2012 austerity budget"
Green Party media advisory, September 27, 2011
http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=450
• October 2011 http://october2011.org
• Occupy Wall Street http://www.occupywallst.org
• Occupy Together: events across the US and in other countries in
solidarity with Occupy Wall Street http://www.occupytogether.org
• Declaration of the Occupation of New York City
NYC General Assembly: The Official Website of the GA at #OccupyWallStreet
http://nycga.cc/2011/09/30/declaration-of-the-occupation-of-new-york-city
• It's Our Economy http://itsoureconomy.us
MORE INFORMATION
Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191
• Green candidate database and campaign information:
http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml
• News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml
• Speakers Bureau http://www.gp.org/speakers
• Ballot Access Page http://www.gp.org/ballotstatus
• Livestream Channel http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus
• Video Page http://www.gp.org/video/index.php
Press conferences, forums, and other events at the Green Party's 2011
Annual National Meeting in Alfred, NY, broadcast and archived on the
Green Party's Livestream Channel
http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus
• 2011 Annual National Meeting http://nygreenfest.org
Green Pages: The official publication of record of the Green Party of
the United States (Summer 2011 issue now online)
http://gp.org/greenpages-blog
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